(Photo: Brad Paris)

How insolent can customers be?
All the time I hear, “Do you mean to tell me I cannot have it? What do you mean I can’t have it? I want it now.” This is the attitude I deal with every day. A lady yesterday bought $9,000 worth of shoes while constantly doing business into her phone.

You must put up with a lot.
A woman once made me cry. If I go out of my way to be extra nice and then someone says “Oh, she was so mean and nasty,” it makes me really upset.

What do you wear on your day off?
I only wear Manolo. And I have three pairs of Nikes.

You really wear Manolos all the time?
Once, we were in the rain forest in Puerto Rico, and I was wearing my little black suede Blahnik loafers. Of course, everyone in the tour bus is looking at me like, What’s wrong with you?

What’s the latest Manolo you’re coveting?
A green satin shoe with a rhinestone buckle and a four-inch heel; it’s called the Callo.

What’s the biggest sale you’ve made?
Almost $300,000. She was shopping alone, in her thirties, a European businesswoman. She bought a lot of skins; each shoe was almost $2,000. When she left, I said, What just happened? Every month I was charging $50,000 on the credit card.

Related:

• Archive: “Ask Shop Clerk”
• Articles by Denise Penny
• Table of Contents: October 25, 2004 issue of New York | Subscribe!